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If TheStreet gained nothing else from the following story, it should have been given a 10-year reprieve from the economics of the information/media business. Note the date.
Oh wait.

Press declares that housing slump is over

December 30, 2006Marek Fuchs of TheStreet.com points out that the
business media have begun writing about the housing market as if it’s
about to turn around when that may not be the case.

Fuchs wrote, “The Business Press Maven is always highly critical of
the business media for allowing a pattern of three to qualify as a
trend. But apparently now two can do the deed. The National Association
of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes blipped up 0.6% in
November, following a 0.5% increase in October.

“How did those modest little facts play?

“In its lead, the Associated Pressdeclared
that ‘the worst of the downturn for the battered housing market may be
over.’ Lower down, it hedges, mentioning those ever-present and always
plural ‘analysts’ who say that ‘this year’s slide in housing is starting
to bottom out.’ The Business Press Maven seconds that with his
first-ever ironclad guarantee. After all, with today being the last
business day of the year, the housing market doesn’t have too much
longer to slide in 2006.

“Reutersalso ushers in
a new era of stability, at least on paper (or, more accurately, in
pixels), with what passes as reason: Wall Street was wrong, so it is
right. ‘The National Association of Realtors said the pace of existing
home sales rose 0.6 percent in November to a 6.28 million-unit annual
rate, defying Wall Street forecasts for sales to ease slightly and
providing the latest suggestion that housing activity was stabilizing
after a steep drop.’...